


Slow Dancing

by GuraKruor



Category: Tenkuu no Escaflowne | The Vision of Escaflowne
Genre: F/M, Slow Dancing, rarepair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 15:17:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9331103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuraKruor/pseuds/GuraKruor
Summary: In times of need, you can get help from an unexpected source.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AceLucky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceLucky/gifts).



> [For Tumblr prompt #24: Slow Dancing](http://gurakruor.tumblr.com/post/152102852950/lustanddaiold-sweet-affectionate-moments-meme)

Reeden was anxious, and it was noticeable in the way he sparred with Gaddes this afternoon in the yard; his footing was sloppy and the taller man had cornered him twice in the last ten minutes.  
  
“Let’s call it a day,” said the second in command and he was grateful for it, after thanking him he took his sword, put it in its sheath and went to the watchtower.  
  
After being reinstalled in fort Castello and all the adventures they had four years ago you would think that he was sharp as a razor and ready to battle at any time. The truth was that, after being posted for a lot of time in a far off place he had grew to be accustomed to have just a few responsibilities; but, as him and his partners had participated in the war and mostly in the very middle of it —even if they were in the background and just following orders most the time— he was kind of rusty.  
  
To make it worse, he actually had a better place to be at right now; his older brother was going to get married in about a week and even if he had the permit to assist, he didn’t had the time to get ready for it but in the travel; for Jeture’s sake, he hadn’t even bought a gift for the couple yet!  
  
With heavy steps, he climbed the stairs and changed places with Kio; it was a sunny day with some clouds in the sky so he took a seat and would’ve been watching to the outside of the fort if not for the sound of a sword clashing with the lowest part of the wall he was on, it distracted him. He peeked a little and saw the younger sister of his commander taking his place with Gaddes as sparring partner; the girl had managed to take his sword out of the formula as quick as he had been previously cornered.  
  
Celena wasn’t a rare visage in the fort, it had took her a while to adapt to her new home but, contrary to what many thought, she was really smart and had an easiness to adapt; the fact that they were a —undisciplined—military force made it easier for her, since she had passed most of her other life in that kind of environment. Sometimes, she was actually stricter than her brother; her own agenda was more spartan: sparring and helping out in the fort was her life, it took Allen a lot of time to understand that she wasn’t made for the court life but in the end, she ended up being an unofficial second in command to him.  
  
Suddenly, she turned to see him straight to the eye; with a serious face, she kind of defied him to a stare contest… which he lost olympically. He tried to pretend to had been caught in the middle of a turn, but he knew that she wasn’t going to buy it. He was going to get a word from her, probably, at this point he wasn’t that sure; the girl was an enigma, even after all these years of knowing each other, she still kept surprising him.  
  
She tried to blend as one of them, to not ask help from her brother at the minimal trouble she would have… and yet, she hadn’t mentioned a promotion of some sorts or even transference; in a way, her brother helped her to keep a low profile while doing what she liked in the meantime, kind of a contradiction if you asked him.  
  
He returned to his post and chooses to not over think it; he already had lots of stuff in his mind to get distracted by the possibility of the young lady being angry at him. He looked outside the fort, lazily, until night, when Ort changed places with him —bowl of food in hand— and Reeden went downstairs to get his own dinner.  
  
If he hadn’t been distracted he would’ve noticed that someone was planning to intercept him once he turned to the left corner, in his way to the dining room. He almost collided with said person, if not for his short size, his step would’ve been larger and more difficult to correct.  
  
“I’ve heard that you had trouble focusing this afternoon with Gaddes, so I was-” and there she was, clad in khaki pants and violet sleeveless shirt, wearing tall boots; her silver blonde curls short as ever.  
  
“Lady Celena,” he looked as if he had been catch by a lion, if it weren’t for the fact that the moon light was right behind him she would’ve noticed that he had paled two shades in less than a second; instead, it had made her blue eyes look as if they were glowing.  
  
“Celena, just Celena is fine,” she corrected him with a hand raised to her chest and palm looking at him, at which he echoed her name under his breath.  
  
“As I was saying, before your interruption, I was thinking of give you a hand so the next time you won’t give up that easily,” she stated, out of the blue and without a flinch, she waited for his answer.  
  
His mouth was suddenly dry, and knew that his voice was going to sound weird —probably even cracked, “Don’t worry, L- Celena, I don’t want to give ya trouble; it’s just-” for some reason he felt compelled to give her some kind of excuse to save his face so he raised both hands in front of him and negated with both exaggeratedly.  
  
“I insist, it’s not a bother to me, besides we don’t want you to have a slip during real duty,” she said, trying to sound friendly, “I’ll see you in the training room after dinner,” she grabbed his right shoulder with her right hand; even with the strap of his armor in the way he felt her cold fingers.  
  
And like that, she passed from him to the back side of the Castello, without allowing him to deny or accept the invitation; it sure was one weird moment, an awkward one for him. He had spoken, at most, five times with the young woman and surely this one was the longest she had interacted with him since arriving to the fort.  
  
He turned to see her walk away, blending with the darkness of the hall; he swallowed a thick gulp of saliva and once going inside the dining room, tried with all his might to look as if nothing had happened at all. He ate his meal —they served _minestrone_ — and chatted with his friends; he even drank two pints of beer and excused himself before going to his bunk.  
  
In the way, he considered accepting the invitation of the lady; she sure had a point and had volunteered to help him. Yet, it was odd, why would she offer him a hand if they weren’t close friends? She was an amiable person, as much as she could be given her upbringing; besides, there was the fact that he was more interested in preparing to leave than in practicing at the moment.  
  
_A sparring before bed won’t hurt._ Was what he reasoned, without noticing that his feet were in fact carrying him to the training grounds without thinking.  
  
Once he got there, he noticed that the torches were lit only in the middle, which was obviously where Celena had to be waiting for him, right? His guess was wrong, she was at his left and tossed him a sword within a sheath; he grabbed by instinct and turned to see her walking to the center of the room.  
  
“I see that you took my offer, come here,” she moved her hand to call him to join her.  
  
“Hmm I had nothing better to do,” he shrugged and walked to the illuminated area; under the light of the fire both projected big shadows to the walls which made them both look more menacing.  
  
Without a word, she started her attack, one handedly Celena charged with an up-to-down straight hit, which he parried with his sword and tried to put it parallel with her own. The force of her strike was so strong that it shook his arm and made him difficult to ward off the moment she changed again in the same spot twice and later with a down-to-up hit. She clicked her tongue at his reaction, she had expected him to attack, in fact _almost_ gave him the opportunity, being almost the key word.  
  
“You’re afraid of me, don’t you?” her voice was daring, with a hint of mockery.  
  
“O-oi, I’m here; if I were afraid of ya then I hadn’t come,” he half lied, in fact she kind of unnerved him but not to the point of scaring him; she had this _vibe_ of being strict and unforgiving of failure that had at first unsettled him.  
  
“Then why does it look as if you preferred to be elsewhere than here? In the afternoon you were observing so intensely at my movements that I thought you wanted to learn from me,” while she kept her sword down, pinned to the ground, her left hand was what helped her to express herself in this moment.  
  
_Ah! So that’s the big deal._ He realized that she was with him for a misunderstanding; how could he tell her that it had been a coincidence without making her feel bad? Suddenly, he felt as if he was walking on eggshells; he knew that she didn’t liked to be treated with a silk glove, in a way it was good to know that she wouldn’t break with some sincerity but on the other side, he couldn’t help to feel like a jerk.  
  
“Actually, I turned to see ya ‘cause Gaddes’ sword hit the wall I was guarding,” he put his hand in his nape and smiled awkwardly, he wanted the ground to open and shallow him the moment Celena’s silver eyebrows almost touched her hairline.  
  
“So that’s it? Well, sorry for the misinterpretation, it won’t happen again,” her response was formal; if there was an aggressive hint on it she knew how to mask it with the cold tone of her voice.  
  
She took her sword and after sheathing it, walked to the exit; he stood there, like a statue, not knowing how to react to the weird moment. Was she mad? Had he offended her? He would never know, given that she was a master of fooling people without effort; hell, he didn’t even wanted to see the expression on her face, it was kind of--  
  
“One more thing, before I leave, you never told me why today’s training of yours was a failure,” had he paid attention at her before, he hadn’t turned in the direction of her voice; he ended up with his face mere inches away from hers and so, he didn’t really knew what to answer without losing more face.  
  
“I-I had my mind elsewhere and n-nothing more, it won’t happen again, I swear,” his voice was sharper when he said the last part of his excuse.  
  
“And can I know what was more important that your training, Reeden?”she was now with a half akimbo position, with one fist in her hip and fully turned to his direction.  
  
All he could see were her blue eyes, looking at him with amusement, she was expecting an answer and since he got himself in this mess with lies, he had to say the truth: “My older brother is gonna marry soon and I don’t even know how to dance without make myself look like an idiot,” it was so quick, that he thought she wouldn’t buy it.  
  
She shocked a laugh, then couldn’t keep it to herself; it kind of made him feel embarrassed and scared at the same time, the girl had even shed a tear which she wiped with the back of her hand. After a while she stopped and, while catching her breath she told him, while looking at him straight to the eye:  
  
“You should’ve told it sooner, as it happens I know how to dance and, according to _some_ I’m good at teaching people how to do stuff,” she smiled at him and he was so startled that he didn’t registered her calling him by name for the very first time.  
  
He couldn’t believe it, was Celena Schezar kind of saying she’d teach him how to dance? It had to be a dream, she was a lady and him a nobody, besides, they weren’t exactly friends. But, at the moment, she was the best option to learn how to dance since probably the other person to know how to do it was in fact, her brother, and telling **him** could be way more awkward than this brief exchange of words.  
  
“Could ya teach me how to dance, please?” he clenched his teeth, expecting a physical punishment for his stupidity; what he got, surprised him more.  
  
“It will be a pleasure,” she had now her right hand in the low of his back and had taken his right hand in her left one, “put your left hand in my shoulder,” she commanded him, and he did so.  
  
“Observe my movements, that way you’ll know how to guide your dancing partner,” she pointed her chin a little upwards and looked at the left side before leading him to the illuminated area of the training room.  
  
Until now, Reeden hadn’t noticed that she was, in fact taller than him for about half a head; the other fact that he overlooked in that moment was that she took the man’s place during this dance, but he wouldn’t have minded anyways since she was the one that was teaching him, it would feel wrong for her to be the one being guided. Celena had this regal vibe, imposing in many ways that made her look as someone for whom you’d try to obey just because you had to, it was the natural order of nature.  
  
Celena Schezar was quite a puzzle; he had heard rumors about how the boys she had lead during her days as the infamous captain of the Dragonslayers had even protected her other half after their death. They were probably drawn towards them due to that weird charisma of hers, or was it one of Dilandau’s aftereffects? Reeden guessed it was a Schezar thing, as his commander was a known lady-killer.  
  
The way she leaded him at the peace of her own inner tune, made him stop his musings and to return his attention at what was important in that moment: it was one rare occasion in which he was getting dancing lesions from _her_. There was no music, yet it wasn’t something he could hear but actually feel, in a way it was almost like being taught swordsmanship. You could learn all the theory, how to calculate your opponent’s next movement using their body language and the like, but you’d never have the real grasp of it until actually engaging in combat with someone.  
  
If Reeden was still grasping what was going on, Celena was kind of more clueless; she didn’t knew what got into her when she offered as herself as his swordplay partner tonight. It was true that when she had catch him looking at her in the afternoon was the start of it, usually her brother’s men adverted their gazes at her, fearing she’d get offended or probably felt bad; the only one that didn’t looked at her that way was Gaddes, until today… or so had she thought.  
  
She had been foolish to think that this guy was different from the others, yet he hadn’t escaped which was quite a feat, one that she was going to exploit for the moment. Of course Celena had attended to balls, and all of them were boring for many reasons; most of the time she ended up alone in a corner and with her brother as dance partner, or with men that just made her the favor out of pity. Either way, nobody was interesting to her, about what would they speak? Sewing and fashion because her speaking of swordsmanship was scandalous? She wasn’t skilled in the _feminine_ tasks other women were trained to do since being young girls, but while she didn’t hated the tasks she wasn’t fond of them.  
  
With Reeden she had an equal ground of some sorts, both were swordsmen and part of the military, besides he already knew about her other half and apparently wasn’t judging her for it nor afraid of him. She was going to try her luck tonight with this guy, while he still seemed nervous around her he had tried to save some face in the process and that was admirable in its own merit.  
  
“So, tell me, Reeden, are you going to go alone to that wedding?” she spun him away from her and returned him with an ease that told him she had a lot of practice being the lead during a dance.  
  
If not for his quick reflexes he was going to collide with her and probably would’ve pushed her to the ground; but she had a steady footing and kept them both standing. Reeden eyes were focused in her chin, given the differences in heights; as he was still spinning when she asked it took him a little more time to actually process the question he just nodded.  
  
“Then, why don’t we go together? It’s obvious that you’re not going to become a decent dancer with only one class, there are many different types of dance that are typical in weddings I can save you of the moments a stranger asks you for something you don’t know,” the way she explained it seemed off for some reason, but she was so confident that it irradiated through Reeden and he accepted it in the end.  
  
Celena smirked and, after bowing to say farewell to her dancing partner, said: I’m looking forward to next week, Reeden.  
And like that, she took her sword and left, leaving a confused soldier standing in the middle of the training room asking himself what had he got into now.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if the story was... weird, and for delaying its completion until now —bad swordfight is bad... and I have two left feet, so… anyways, I had never written something with Allen’s crew on it… I think, and less with Reeden; well, now that I think about it, I had never written Celena in something (I have my own headcanons tho) but I had tons of fun with this prompt!  
>  Btw, the minestrone is an actual dish (which I didn’t knew about and found out by doing research on food for this story), an italian one; it was the one I choose since probably some of the ingredients can be found near the fort, as they are closer to Fanelia than to the main land of Asturia.


End file.
